I spent the first half of my career as the product manager at a software company. Product teams are constantly reviewing their products, assessing: What do our customers want? What changes should we make? Do we (maybe) need to retire a product altogether because it no longer serves its purpose?
Most solopreneurs don’t take the same approach. They continue to push the same products or services, or tack on new items until they have a large suite of offers they have to maintain. We rarely take anything away.
I’ve gotten into the habit of an annual review to make sure everything I put out into the world for my business still makes sense for both me and my customers.
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The trap of adding and never subtracting
Part of the joy of running a solo business is launching something new. You get to make all the decisions about what an offer looks like and how to launch it.
Removing an offer is a lot less fun. It can feel like a loss. Plus, you may have material (website, slide decks, email sequences) that need to be updated.
The problem is that every offer needs upkeep. Content gets out of date. You may also be paying for tools related to hosting or delivering an offer that isn’t doing anything for you.
I create a lot of resources for solopreneurs, often describing systems or processes that make a solo business run efficiently. These can quickly feel dated—or even obsolete—as technology changes.
For a long time, I spent my precious hours creating new resources without a process for updating existing material. That’s a mistake, since outdated information quickly erodes trust.
The questions I ask about every offer
Now I take time to review every product and service I offer and ask myself the same questions:
Is anyone buying it? I start with sales or bookings from the past year. Low numbers aren’t automatically a reason to cut, but I need to review the offer more closely.
Do I still want to do this work? A service can sell well and still be work you don’t enjoy.
What does it cost me to maintain? I count the time I spend updating information and supporting it, plus the time it takes to promote. Then I add any tool subscriptions tied to it.
Does it still fit where my business is headed? An offer that made sense two years ago may not match the clients or work I want now.
I maintain a business road map and value statements, and compare my offers against these documents. I use AI to help this process by having Claude do the initial comparison. This becomes my checklist for a human review and assessment.
What to do with an offer that isn’t working
Keeping an offer as is and cutting it aren’t the only two choices. There are a few other paths:
- Refresh it: Update outdated content.
- Reprice or repackage it: Raise the price or bundle it with something else so it doesn’t stand on its own.
- Re-promote it: Sometimes there’s nothing wrong with the offer; perhaps it just hasn’t been marketed enough.
- Retire it: Take it down, and let existing customers or clients know if needed.
I have a resource related to AI tools for solopreneurs. It made sense when I first created it several years ago. Now it’s impossible to maintain because the AI changes at lightning speed. Instead of spending my time updating it, I spent my time finding all the places where I reference this resource and removing it.
But to start, the most important step is making the time for a review. Block off time on your calendar once a year or put it on your to-do list. The review process is separate from acting on your decision. Your goal is to land on “Where do I go from here?”
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